NETPLAY FIRST ON FREEVIEW

19 December 2008

Interactive gambling company gets access to over 15 million viewers

 

The UK-listed interactive television gambling company NetPlayTV has scored a major coup by being the first of its kind to secure a licence to operate a dedicated operation on the 24 hour Freeview Channel. With effect from 8 January 2009 the firm will broadcast its services, including Supercasino.com and Live Bingo on Freeview Channel 48, accessing a potential audience of 15.3 million viewers..

Historically the company has bought spare capacity on the Freeview platform from other broadcasters, such as Virgin and Nuts TV. In securing its own dedicated channel NetPlayTV will be able to drive users to its own channel, thus building greater loyalty and permanence.

Freeview is the UK's largest digital TV platform, serviing 86.7 percent of UK households and enable them to receive digital TV, with the average household having 2.7 TV sets. To date there have been over 27 million Freeview boxes sold making it the most successful digital TV broadcaster in the UK.

Martin Higginson, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at NetPlay, said: "This is a major milestone for our business. Freeview is the largest digital TV platform in the UK with over 15.3 million homes using the service. To secure a dedicated channel to broadcast our services is a real achievement for the whole team. We will now be able to drive people to our Freeview channel 48 and thus build loyalty in this destination.

"NetPlay TV now broadcasts its services, including Supercasino.com and Live Bingo on three of the four digital TV platforms, Freeview, Sky, and Freesat, giving it a total addressable audience of over 23 million homes in the UK. Allowing our customers to interact with live presenters is a real differentiator. We firmly believe customer playing habits are changing and as such more and more users are now demanding a 'live' gaming experience."